film festival Archives

Sep32025 by cineverseNo Comments

Park Chan-wook’s ‘No Other Choice’ Selected by Korea for Oscars

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By Naman Ramachandran According To The variety The Korean Film Council has selected Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” as the country’s submission for best international feature at the 98th Academy Awards. The move positions the acclaimed filmmaker — whose credits include “Oldboy,” “The Handmaiden” and “Decision to Leave,” which was shortlisted in the category, — for a fresh run at Oscar glory. The dark comedy, adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s novel “The Ax,” premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it is competing for the Golden Lion. Lee Byung-hun, best known globally from “Squid Game,” takes the lead as Yoo Man-su, a paper-industry veteran pushed to desperate, murderous extremes after 25 years of loyalty is abruptly discarded. Critics have hailed “No Other Cho...

Sep22025 by cineverseNo Comments

AI Drama ‘Humans in the Loop’ Adds Kiran Rao, Biju Toppo as Executive Producers (EXCLUSIVE)

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By Naman Ramachandran According To The variety Indian filmmakers Kiran Rao and Biju Toppo have joined as executive producers on “Humans in the Loop,” the Fipresci India Grand Prix-winning feature about an indigenous Adivasi woman working as an AI data-labeller. The move represents a significant boost for the indie feature, which explores urgent themes around artificial intelligence, labor and indigenous knowledge systems. Set in Jharkhand, northern India, the film follows Nehma, an Oraon Adivasi woman whose AI data-labelling work exposes the hidden labor powering “smart” technologies. Adivasis are India’s indigenous tribal communities, comprising roughly 8% of the country’s population. Directed by Aranya Sahay and produced by Mathivanan Rajendran, Sarabhi Ravic...

Sep22025 by cineverseNo Comments

Dwayne Johnson Uncontrollably Sobs as ‘The Smashing Machine’ Gets 15-Minute Venice Standing Ovation and Generates Oscar Buzz

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By Rebecca Rubin, Ramin Setoodeh, Ellise Shafer According To The variety Is Dwayne Johnson headed for the Oscars? Judging by the rapturous reaction to his performance as wrestler Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine” at the Venice Film Festival on Monday night, that seems to be the consensus out of Italy. The 53-year-old actor sobbed uncontrollably as the audience on the Lido erupted into 15-minute standing ovation, one of the longest at this year’s festival so far. Johnson, who once performed as the WWE wrestler known as the Rock, has been the star of such commercial fare as “The Mummy,” “Black Adam” and “Baywatch.” But he goes much deeper in his next project, which will be released by A24 in November, as a ’90s fighter with demons. Johnson stars opposite Emi...

Aug312025 by cineverseNo Comments

Do Bigha Zamin’ Preservationist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur Details Venice-Bound Restoration of Bimal Roy Classic

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By Naman Ramachandran According To The variety With the 4K restoration of master Bimal Roy‘s “Do Bigha Zamin” (Two Acres of Land) set for its world premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival‘s Classics section, India’s Film Heritage Foundation director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is reflecting on the monumental effort to restore the 1953 Indian cinema landmark — and why the film remains essential viewing seven decades later. “Bimal Roy made ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ two years before Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali,'” Dungarpur tells Variety. “Satyajit Ray said about Bimal Roy that he was able to sweep aside the cobwebs of the old tradition and introduce a realism and subtlety that was wholly suited to the cinema.” For Dungarpur, Roy’s film represents cinema’s power...

Aug312025 by cineverseNo Comments

Preparation for the Next Life’ Review: A Bittersweet Immigrant Love Story Thrives on Two Terrific Performances

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By Carlos Aguilar According To The variety The spark between two soon-to-be lovers ignites inside a Latin nightclub in New York City, as the pair dance with clumsy playfulness to the Spanish romantic ballad “Un Velero Llamado Libertad” (A Sailboat Named Freedom). Their origins and struggles couldn’t be more disparate: She is an undocumented immigrant who’s part of China’s persecuted Uyghur ethnic minority; he’s a white Army veteran with no clear direction and a chronic case of PTSD. Holding on their comforting stares and unspoken exchanges with only Emile Mosseri’s sonic drizzle of a score as company, filmmaker Bing Liu (best known for his Oscar-nominated documentary “Minding the Gap”) delicately traces their blossoming and improbable romance in his first foray into fiction...

Aug302025 by cineverseNo Comments

Hamnet’ Sets the Oscar Bar High at Telluride With Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal’s Heartbreaking Turns

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By Clayton Davis According To The variety In a quaint theater in the Colorado mountains where we lay our scene, a clear Oscar contender emerges. Before Chloé Zhao’s anticipated drama “Hamnet” held its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on Friday, the director took the stage with her two stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal to lead the audience in a meditation before they took in her heartbreaking story. With a room that included some of her peers like “Sinners” director Ryan Coogler and actor-turned-director Harris Dickinson, the immaculate adaptation unspooled before the sold out crowd and captivated the audience. The moving and fictionalized portrait of grief and loss that inspired one of history’s most treasured playwrights held its grip...

Aug302025 by cineverseNo Comments

Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence’ About Italy’s First Female Film Director Acquired by First Hand Films Ahead of Venice Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

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By Nick Vivarelli According To The variety Switzerland-based distributor First Hand Films has taken world sales on “Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence,” which reconstructs the overlooked story of Italy’s first female director, ahead of the documentary’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The doc, which is directed by Valerio Ciriaci and launches in the Venice Classics section, blends rare films and photographs from Italy’s Cineteca Nazionale film archives and the Cineteca di Bologna, known globally as a prime film preservation entity, with the voices of contemporary artists and academics. Between 1906 and 1930, Notari created more than 60 feature films that blended melodrama with raw depictions of Naples’ street life. These pioneering works captivated audi...